A mum locked her husband out of their home and tried to kill her three children during a terrifying incident after hearing voices.
The woman – who cannot be named for legal reasons – became convinced her four-year-old, two-year-old and ten-week-old would be taken away by her husband, where they would be abused and ‘tortured’.
Sheffield Crown Court heard today (July 3) that during the horrifying incident on February 6 last year, the woman locked her husband out of their house in Huddersfield and stabbed herself and the three children, YorkshireLive reports.
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As she sentenced the woman, The Honourable Mrs Justice Lambert said when she opened the door, the woman’s husband “could see blood”.
The judge told the woman: “He ran upstairs and saw the three children covered in blood. He immediately called the emergency services and told police there had been concerns about your mental health and you had made false allegations against him which you had retracted.”
The court heard that the woman claimed she had previously been married to another man, who, alongside his father, had abused her after the family heard about past relationships she had had. She said they also burned her with cigarettes. It was when she returned home and remarried that the woman began to suffer with her mental health.
Justice Lambert said: “You began hearing voices and thinking about killing yourself. Between December 2023 and March 2024 you were an inpatient for your psychiatric ill health. You showed perplexity at that point – Dr Todd says that is when a person is lost in their own world, unable to focus fully on what they are doing. You set fire to your bedroom area in hospital. You were discharged with a diagnosis of adjustment reaction of turmoil after a life event.”
It was said the woman’s mood began to deteriorate again in 2022 and she began to hear voices on a “daily basis” before the birth of her third child. The judge said: “They were telling you you were dirty and should die. Your mood was low and you were struggling to cope. In 2022, you believed your husband was behaving like your ex husband and called the police…”
“After the birth of your third child you struggled to cope and the voices were telling you you would be better off dead and taking your children with you because you could protect them from the cruel world.”
The court heard the woman was visited in January by medical staff including a doctor who did not know the woman’s history of hearing voices. The doctor visited the next day and noted she seemed “brighter” and she had denied suicidal thoughts.
The judge said: “He mentioned a possible diagnosis of post-partem psychosis and she did not agree she needed to be in hospital or that she was depressed. It was agreed she would be kept under review.”
Justice Lambert said the woman herself suffered 14 stab wounds in total, causing a collapsed lung. The baby suffered two wounds to each side of the neck and a collapsed lung. The two-year-old had suffered eight wounds to their lung, causing a partial collapse. They also contracted an infection.
The four-year-old had eight wounds to the neck, one to the right cheek and two to the back. Medical staff discovered a shadow on their heart and damage to the lung. Justice Lambert said the four-year-old “would have been aware their mother was harming them”.
The judge told the woman: “You suffer from a chronical mental disorder. The condition has fluctuated in severity over a ten-year period. One of the doctors says but for your health you wouldn’t have committed the offence.
“The other says he has no doubt you were suffering from a mental disorder and this was a major factor in your offending and a the time you were suffering from delusional beliefs that your children were to be taken and abused and tortured.”
“Both say you failed to seek help for your mental health.”
It was said the woman was “scared” to seek help due to fears she would lose contact with her children. The judge said: “I accept these delusions were real to you.”
The woman was sentenced to ten years and eight months under section 45 of the Mental Health Act. She will be detained in hospital and will be transferred to prison until she is well enough to be transferred to prison.
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